Green infrastructure inequalities in informal settlements

Abstract

A growing number of cities are turning to green infrastructure as a way to manage climate change, nature recovery and unsustainable development. Although such an approach has been at the centre of thinking about development in many cities in the global North, there have been few interventions in cities of the global South. Only recently have scholars paid attention to how uneven land-use regulations in greening approaches toward informal settlements can exacerbate inequalities and result in green gentrification, residents' displacement and the relocation of informal communities. Eviction policies and the relocation of informal settlements have been justified by planning authorities under the banner of ecological improvement and climate adaptation. However, the eviction and replacement policies are often resisted by the residents of informal settlements. This paper builds upon and extends this nascent bank of knowledge by mobilising the conflicting rationalities framework to illustrate how green interventions conventionally are framed as a ‘win-win’ can exacerbate inequitable urban redevelopments, leading to exclusion and conflict. The paper qualitatively examines a case of greening plans in an informal settlement in Tehran metropolitan area, Iran. Thus, it also provides knowledge on a context that has received comparatively scant coverage in the academic literature on urban greening.